A Los Angeles-based nonprofit opened an early childhood center specifically for children whose families are seeking asylum in the United States. This center is one of the only places available where migrant children can play and learn for free.

Editorial: It’s time to consider a federal carbon tax — and to confront NIMBYism

A restaurant in Paradise in Northern California is incinerated on Nov. 8 by the fast-moving Camp fire. A new government report says the increased intensity of wildfires is the direct result of climate change.

At a time when the president of the United States doesn’t believe his own administration’s dire warnings about how catastrophic climate change is for the economy and the planet, many leaders in California — the world’s fifth-largest economy — don’t turn a blind eye to science. In San Diego, enthusiastic bipartisan support endures for an ambitious city Climate Action Plan adopted in 2015, which requires greenhouse gas emissions to be cut in half and all electricity to be from renewable sources by 2035. In the Capitol, Gov. Jerry Brown won bipartisan renewal until 2030 of the state’s cap-and-trade program — which requires polluters to pay for the right to emit greenhouse gases — then signed a bill mandating carbon-free energy by 2045.

Yet a new California Air Resources Board report raises profound questions about whether state residents, starting with local officials, are willing to change their ways to stave off disaster down the road. The report outlines how a 2008 state law intended to prod local authorities to build more housing near transit centers to reduce pollution from commuters had yielded scant results. This is reflected in the disturbing fact that carbon emitted from vehicles has risen in California in recent years.

The National Climate Assessment released Friday by 13 agencies of the federal government shows how high the stakes are. It cited vast evidence that the carbon build-up in the atmosphere had made the planet hotter, made wildfires more devastating and threatened coastal areas with severe flooding in coming decades because of melting ice caps and glaciers. The resulting damage could cost hundreds of trillions of dollars — and harm public health.

This is why it’s time for a bolder approach at every level of government. To overcome the NIMBYism that dominates local land-use debates in California, the Legislature should again take up legislation like this year’s Senate Bill 827, which would have made it much easier to build four- or five-story apartment and condominium buildings within a half-mile of transit centers. The Senate Democrats who helped kill the measure didn’t grasp that this isn’t just a response to the state’s housing shortage; it reflects the commitments the Legislature has made over and over again to reducing greenhouse-gas emissions, specifically from vehicles.

Advertisement

But the most important work must be done at the federal level, where President Donald Trump’s bizarre refusal to believe, let alone heed, his own administration’s warnings about climate change make the future especially cloudy. What’s needed is a bipartisan embrace of a broad carbon tax, a concept The Washington Post columnist Catherine Rampell this week called “a no-brainer.” It’s not just the most effective way to discourage the use of fossil fuels. It would also supercharge efforts to develop cleaner, less-carbon-intensive technologies.

On Tuesday, House members Ted Deutch, D-Florida, Francis Rooney, R-Florida, and Brian Fitzpatrick, R-Pennsylvania, introduced a bill that would impose a $15-per-metric-ton carbon fee on the oil, gas and coal industries, with all revenue rebated to the public to limit the pain of higher fossil fuel costs. It merits careful consideration as a huge and decisive step toward a healthier planet.

Every year that the nations of the world — and the NIMBYs in our back yard — dawdle, the problem of carbon build-up in the atmosphere becomes harder to address. It’s time for all elected leaders to rise to the occasion and act. If leaders don’t lead, our children and our grandchildren will be far worse off.